Burch: Is Romney toast?

Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 10:05pm

By Michael R. Burch

Is Mitt Romney still in the running? While at the moment the presidential race seems to be neck-and-neck, I think Romney may have just pulled up lame. Meanwhile, the Democrats have trotted out their political thoroughbred, Bill Clinton, who seems to be kicking up his heels and feeling frisky.

Here’s what Clinton said on NBC’s Today show about Romney’s tax returns: “I am a little surprised he only released a year’s worth of tax returns. That kind of perplexed me, because this is the first time in, I don’t know, more than 30 years that anybody running for president has only done that. You know, it’s typical we all release 10, 11 years; I think Senator McCain released over 20 years of tax returns.” And of course Romney’s father set the national precedent by voluntarily releasing 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president in 1968.

Here’s the real stunner. On the morning of July 12, speaking on the Senate floor, Majority Leader Harry Reid made this remarkable statement: “His father, George Romney, set the precedent that people running for president would file their tax returns, let everybody look at them, but Mitt Romney can’t do that because he’s basically paid no taxes in the prior 12 years.”

How could Reid know if Romney failed to pay taxes for 12 years? One possibility is that the word leaked out after Romney disclosed 23 years of returns to John McCain, when Romney was under consideration to be McCain’s running mate. If that’s true, this would explain why McCain chose Sarah Palin over Romney, and why Romney refuses to release more returns.

But Romney may now have bigger fish to fry than worrying about the presidency, such as staying out of jail if he illegally evaded taxes. While the evidence is not conclusive, due to the undisclosed returns, it seems Romney may have sheltered up to $100 million of his personal fortune in offshore “IRA” accounts, according to reputable news services like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME, Reuters, CBS News and Huffington Post.

If what Romney did was on the up-and-up, he should just say, “Look, what I did was perfectly legal, but it is unfair to other American taxpayers, and we need to fix the unfair tax system and close the loopholes.” But by refusing to disclose his taxes, he gives the impression that he did something wrong and fears what would happen if he told the truth.

For example, an investment vehicle called the Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. has been described in securities filings as a “Bermuda corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney.” Romney transferred his wife’s newly created blind trust to Sankaty the day before he was sworn in as governor of Massachusetts. Sankaty’s director and president is R. Bradford Malt, Romney’s lawyer. Romney failed to list Sankaty on several financial disclosures, even though such a closely held vehicle would seemingly not qualify as an investment fund excepted from disclosures.

Sankaty, however, was only made public when Romney disclosed his 2010 tax return, after being pressured to do so during the debates. Having most or much of his wealth in offshore tax shelters could easily explain Romney’s fish-out-of-water act. Surely the American public has the right to know why a man running for president has offshore accounts that give every appearance of being part of a shell game to avoid U.S. income taxes. Is there any reason to create shell companies in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, other than to avoid U.S. laws and taxes?

And there is good reason to question whether Romney’s “blind” trusts are really blind. One of the investments that Malt made with Romney’s “blind” trust was to put $10 million in Solamere, a company co-founded by Romney’s son Tagg and Romney’s campaign finance chair, Spencer Zwick. The Solamere investment strongly suggests that Romney’s “blind” trust is operating under Romney’s watchful eye. And if you don’t believe me, please consult an expert: in 1994, Mitt Romney explained that the “blind trust” is an “age old ruse!”

Is Romney electable? Joe Scarborough, one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world, recently said, “I have yet to meet anybody in the Republican establishment that worked for George W. Bush, that works in the Republican Congress, [or] that worked for Ronald Reagan that thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the general election.”

Michael R. Burch is a Nashville-based editor and publisher of Holocaust poetry and other “things literary” at www.thehypertexts.com.

85 Comments on this post:

Correct me if I'm wrong, Mike, but I believe Mitt Romney has released as many years tax returns as required by law which I believe is two years, and he isn't even the nominee yet.

Using his father as am example is ridiculous. Every man is responsible to make his personal decisions.

But perhaps he could make a deal with Barack Obama: He would agree to show more tax returns if Obama would agree to show his birth certificate, passports and school papers.

Doesn't that sound fair? Or won't Obama show his papers because they would show him as a usurper of office?

By:Mike Burch on 7/20/12 at 2:52

Yogi,

President Obama disclosed 12 years of tax returns, the same number of tax returns as George Romney, when he ran for president in 1968. But his son has only released tax returns for the year 2010 so far. Why has Mitt Romney not released the 11 prior years? According to what Harry Reid said on the senate floor, the reason is that one of America's wealthiest men paid virtually NO TAXES for 12 years.

If Harry Reid is wrong, all Romney has to do is release his tax returns, following his father's good example. As his father pointed out when he released tax returns for 12 years, producing just one year's return might be for "show" or unrepresentative.

Why did Romney release just his 2010 tax return? Perhaps because after McCain dumped him as a VP candidate for not paying income taxes, Romney decided to start paying taxes, and 2010 was the first year that he paid meaningful taxes.

If so, he can't afford to disclose his taxes for prior years. He accuses Americans who want affordable healthcare of demanding "free stuff," but it seems he's a huge hypocrite who thinks he is entitled to "free stuff" in the form of millions of dollars of unpaid taxes.

Mike

By:Mike Burch on 7/20/12 at 3:00

Yogi,

President Obama has "gone public" with his birth certificate and 12 years of tax returns. Mitt Romney has been accused of having up to $100 million dollars in Cayman Island and Bermuda "IRAs." But contributions to IRAs are limited to a few thousand dollars per year, so it is inconceivable that anyone can have so much money in an IRA. And the fact that the IRAs happen to be Bain Capital holdings, set up in notorious tax havens, seems to suggest that Romney has sheltered most or all of his personal wealth from income taxes.

If he wants to prove that he's not a tax cheat, all he has to do is release his tax returns, like his father, Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and every president since 1968.

If Romney won't release his tax returns, he seems to be confirming that there is something so damning there, he will risk losing the presidency to keep it confidential.

Even conservatives are making this assertion, and they're not happy that Romney's tax evasion seems to be likely to cost them the chance to unseat Barack Obama.

Mike

By:Captain Nemo on 7/20/12 at 3:48

Maybe Mitt doesn't want to tell because he has been short changeing the church for years.

By:Captain Nemo on 7/20/12 at 3:50

BTW you are always wrong yogi.

By:bfra on 7/20/12 at 4:03

Mike, another very interesting article. Yogi can't read or comprehend or he would realize Romney has only released 1 yr. of tax info.. He only reads garbage sites, thus he never gets any fact based information.

By:Mike Burch on 7/20/12 at 4:20

Bfra,

It is my understanding that Romney has only released his 2010 return, and estimates of his 2011 return. If he won't release his 2009 return, that suggests there are things there he can't afford for the American public to see. A number of source suggest that he was paying virtually no taxes for a decade or more.

If the rumors are untrue, all he has to do is release his tax returns for 12 years, following his father's good example. If he doesn't, that seems like an admission of guilt.

Mike

By:Mike Burch on 7/20/12 at 4:22

Nemo,

It seems odd that Yogi is so worried about the birth certificate of a baby, but ignores the failure of an adult to produce his tax returns for public scrutiny.

Mike

By:Mike Burch on 7/20/12 at 4:24

Ann Romney, who has offshore accounts and a horse in the Olympics, recently told Robin Roberts imperiously, "We have given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life." Like her husband, she seems to think the America public doesn't deserve full disclosure. Who the hell are we to question Swiss bank accounts, Bermuda trusts and Cayman Island IRAs?

By:dargent7 on 7/20/12 at 5:37

The more Romney is vetted, the dirtier he becomes.
This releasing of his tax returns, or refusal, is just another layer of his suspicious financial behavior.
Bain Capital as it turns out carved up and sold off cos....not "created jobs". Except in China.
Then you have his leaving Bain in 1999 to rescue the Olympics but actually stayed on for 4 more years.
The 3 off-shore bank accounts may be "legal", but definitely "fishy".
Then there's the fact both his father and grandfather were born in Mexico.
He seems to always have an excuse for his "past and behavior.
Wait until he's asked about being a Bishop in the Mormon church, "Magic Underware" and all his beliefs he'll one day become a "God". Not "god like" but an actual God.
Too weird.

By:dargent7 on 7/20/12 at 5:42

"We have given all you (little) people....Ann sounds like that Leona Hemsley woman who said "paying taxes" was for the peons of society.
The Republican party has a problem relating to and accociating with the middle class.
G W Bush owned the Texas Rangers....Cheney had tons of stock in Halliburton who got no bid contracts in Iraq after we blew the place up.
And some bitch that Obama made a million off of writing 3 books himself.

By:dargent7 on 7/20/12 at 5:49

Off-Topic Div: In Aurora, CO, last night, there was a "masked gunman who shot and killed 14 people and wounded 50 at a mid-night showing of The Dark Knight.
Cops say his car had Tennessee plates.
Just great for TN.

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 6:38

Accusations are one thing, proof is another. Even if Romney didn't pay any income tax in the previous years doesn't mean he was cheating. It only means he was using any legal form of laws available to save himself money. Wouldn't you, as all other men do.

If you want to check a bunch of tax cheats, maybe you should look into members of Congress.

And no, Mike, Obama has not shown a legitimate birth certificate. The certificate he has shown is a fake as is the Social Security Number he is using that belongs to a dead man from Connecticut.

By:conservarage on 7/20/12 at 6:49

Burch is yet another liberal demanding Romney release information that never would vote for him anyway. STFU

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 6:50

dargent7,

You keep getting your info from the wrong source. Mitt Romney's father was born in Mexico to American parents which makes him a natural born American citizen. His grandfather was an American citizen who moved to Mexico with his wives to avoid having his wives taken away from him because of their religion.

Barack Obama used an advertisement claiming he was born in Kenya from 1991 until 2007. If Barack Obama [Sr.] was his father, he cannot be a natural born citizen.

He has refused to show any identifying papers to prove his eligibility to serve as our President which seems to be okay with you, but Mitt Romney is ridiculed for not showing 11 years of his tax returns.

That, my friend (as I use the term loosely) is ridiculous.

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 6:58

Mike,

I believe you will find legal guidelines candidates much use when throwing their hat in the ring when running for a political office. Romney has not yet been named as the Republican candidate y but you want to know his financial history.

Sheriff Arpaio's "Cool Case Posse" has offered proof Barack Obama's birth certificate is a false document and his Social Security Number was issued to a man from Connecticut who is dead... yet you are willing to accept those fake papers. Why?

By:dargent7 on 7/20/12 at 7:00

You just keep going 'round and 'round in circles.
All your, "natural born", "naturalized", bull****.
Romney's two patriarchs were born in MEXICO.
Great-granddad fled to Mexico so he could keep his 4 wives, allowed under the Mormon faith, but the USA was closing in on him.
It just boils down to where you were born..."American soil", to become President.
The only nutz and crazies are you Birthers' who do all this, "family tree", ancestory, lineage stuff. Obama's mother was white, born in Kansas, and had him in Honolulu.
It doesn't matter where Obama's dad was born, where he was, or if on the B.C. there wasn't even a listing for "Father".
Let it go.

By:BenDover on 7/20/12 at 7:04

Hasn't his money been in a blind trust since he went into public service 20 years ago?

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 7:07

Mike you say Romney was possibly denied running for VP in 2008 because he did not pay income taxes and he (basically) started paying them to get in the race this year. 2008 was four years ago, if that's the reason he started paying income taxes he could have legally avoided, why couldn't he have just thrown the past four years into the viewing pot to satisfy you Obama loving citizens?

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 7:18

I think you better go back to school, dargent7. If Barack Obama was born in Hawaii (which we don't know) to a Kenyan father and that made him eligible to run for the President's office is saying any child given birth by any woman to any foreign father would make that child eligible to serve as President of the USA even if his mother took him back to her homeland and raised him until he turned 35 years old.

If that's the case, Mitt Romney is more eligible to hold that office than Barack Obama because both of his parents were American citizens. I like the [two for one] much better.

By:bfra on 7/20/12 at 7:18

yogi - Why don't you read your 7:07 comment and explain how much sense it makes!

By:parnell3rd on 7/20/12 at 7:28

He has made the disclosures that are required by law.
Mr. Burch, How come you did not bring up Nancy Pelosi? She is not disclosing her tax returns. When she was asked the question, she responded by saying it's not an issue let's move on.
It seems like Deocrats are exempt in thier minds from what they want from the other side.
How about democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Schultz having money invested overseas? Oh, my gosh, how un American to make money the capitaist way!
According to d7 the more Romni is vetted the dirtier he becomes. Who veted Obama? No one, the media gave him a pass. Then some fashion magazine reads his book and finds out he lied about articles in the book.
Hypocrite is a word that comes to mind when I read and hear these stories.
Name one person who has not used the 64,000 pages of the tax codes to reduce their taxes. If you include yourself I'll call you a liar to your face.

By:parnell3rd on 7/20/12 at 7:35

Just more propaganda, American's invented it, Nazi Germany used it, still alive and well in America, Propaganda.
Why don't you right an article about all of President Obama's great policies? How he has kept all of those promises? Like "When I'm elected President, there will be no lobbyist in the white house!" Many more too.
You can't right an article on his accomplishments because he is a failure. All you can do is perpitrate the propaganda the other news agencies are putting out. Stories started by the White House.
And while your writing about that, call the White House and demand his Medical records, he released one page and demand his college transcripts, he has released none.

So, the next time I hear a Republican complain about the "47% who do not pay taxes" we can remind them that their presidential candidate is one of the 47%. And he is ridiculously wealthy.

By:govskeptic on 7/20/12 at 8:04

More Friday talking points straight from the Re-election committee. Of course,
Candidate Obama released 6 years of returns, not 12, because other than
the couple of years he was running he had great income from book sales,
certainly nothing much prior to being elected to the US Senate! Michele's
income was quite nice after she was given a lucrative job in the Univ. of
Chicago Hospital after Barack was elected a State Senator. Romney has
promised two years of returns and is sticking to that. As to all the other
speculation in this letter, especially the selection of Palin because of
Romney's returns is totally false BS spread by the opposition and denied
by both McCain and the chairman of his selection committee that his taxes having
never even being discussed. This Bellevue editorial holds little water!

By:Beernazi on 7/20/12 at 8:05

Why on earth would anyone care about Obama's medical records or college transcripts? I couldn't care less, but I certainly would be interested in seeing his tax records. I don't give a flying flip about Romney's medical records or college transcripts, but if he is not paying taxes, I want to know!

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 8:05

Sorry, bfra.

If you can't understand what I said at 7:07 I doubt if I could explain anythng to you.

By:Beernazi on 7/20/12 at 8:07

If Romeny has nothing to hide, then he should release them. Obama had nothing to hide with her birth certificate so he released it. It wasn't required for him to do so, but he did. What is Romney hiding? Why is he skirting the issue? Doesn't that make you suspicious?

By:StephenII on 7/20/12 at 8:13

I don't know if Rommey is the best person to be our next President - but what I do know, is that 4 more years of Obama and this Congress of idiots and all of America is screwed.

While Mr Burch and the Obama defenders are attacking Romney over being financially savvy, they ignore the total ineptness of Obama, his totally lack of leadership and according to PolitiFact, Obama is a big ole fibber.

It seems to me that looking for Mr. Perfect as our President is a fools journey. What attributes does this nation need to move out of this ditch we are in would seem to be a more wise use of everyone's intellect.

Mr. Burch - take the road less traveled! Stop attacking and offer real solutions to what is broken. You too can be a leader of positive thought and action as opposed to your course of hate and partisanship.

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 8:14

Beernazi,

If Obama showed his college records it would prove he was a foreign student, and I presume you understand that would make him ineligible for that office, which then brings the question: Why has he refused to show any identifying papers on himself?

If you're like Mike and don't care what the Constitution "says" about eligibility as long as it's Barry, I understand.

I prefer someone in that office legally... according to our Constitution.

yogi, you have been duped again. Your critical thinking skills are as poor as your grammar.

By:Beernazi on 7/20/12 at 8:20

•Has anyone released Obama's Occidental College transcripts?

No, the transcripts haven't been released (federal privacy laws forbid it), nor has any court of law "ordered" them released. (Source: Occidental College)

•Did Obama attend Occidental under the name "Barry Soetoro"?

No. Soetoro was the surname of his stepfather, but there's no evidence Barack Obama used it when he attended college. Fellow alumni quoted in the press remember him as "Barry Obama." According to an Occidental spokesperson quoted on FactCheck.org, the college has no records showing Obama used his stepfather's last name.

No. According to various news sources Obama did attend on a scholarship, but it wasn't a Fulbright scholarship, let alone a Fulbright scholarship for foreign students. The Fulbright Foreign Student Program accepts Master's Degree and Ph.D. candidates only. Obama, an undergraduate, was neither. He couldn't have been awarded a Fulbright scholarship for foreign students even if he had been born outside the U.S. (Source: Fulbright Program)

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 8:25

Beernazi,

If Obama has nothing to hide, why did he wait so long to show his "birth certificate" when he said the Hawaiian government would not allow him to get a copy of it? And it has been proven the certificate" showed is a fake.

Why is he using a Social Security number that was originally issued to a man from Connecticut who died in Hawaii when his grandmother was working in that office.

Why will he not show his college records? Could it be because he was a foreign student? Could Bill Ayer's parents have been his sponsors as his mother had said?

By:Beernazi on 7/20/12 at 8:31

yogi, the reason you are constantly mocked is that nothing you say is true or "proven" yet you swallow it - hook, line and sinker. And when you are shown evidence to the contrary, you simply ignore it and keep ranting falsehoods. For example, this whole foreign student thing has already been debunked. Get over it already.

By:Beernazi on 7/20/12 at 8:36

OK, I have to go do something more useful than arguing with a senile, half-brained jerk. TGIF, everyone!

By:dargent7 on 7/20/12 at 8:44

My best guess is that Obama knows he's half black. Doesn't try ti hide it. No way could he pass himself off as the white half.
That said, he want's to be treated like any other US President. No more, no less.
No one asked Nixon for his B.C., LBJ for his, Reagan, Carter, GW Bush.....
No one asked Ford to see his college transcripts, applications, SAT's. No one asked Clinton for his grades at Oxford.
There were no Townies, Birthers, etc. until Obama was elected. Then, all of a sudden, these 'focus groups" surfaced, demanding and making demands no other President addressed.
He wants to acquiesce, cowtow to a bunch of mostly white racists?
"His people" went thru that in the 60's. He's earned the right to be President.
He ran, won handily, and for better or worse, is the sitting President.
If I were Obama, I'd handle it the exact same way.....Go F*** Yourselves!

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 8:44

Beernazi,

Can you explain why the current governor of Hawaii (who was an old friend of Obama's grandparents) said he would provide Obamas birth certificate the day he went in office.. but couldn't find it?

Barack Obama was adopted by his stepfather because Indonesia would not accept a student that wasn't an Indonesian citizen. His school records furnished on his Indonesian school showed his name as Barry Soetoro. If he ever was an American citizen, when did he repatriate to his American citizenship? And when did he officially change his name back to Barack Obama?

How could he have been born in a hospital that didn't exist when he was born? Why did his sister say he was born in the other hospital? There was only two hospitals in Hawaii at that time.

One more question I'm sure you can answer: What passport did Obama use to enter Pakistan in 1981 when Pakistan would not accept an American passport?

One more question. Why was Obama advertised as being born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii from 1991 until 2007? Why, in 2007, was it changed to being born in the USA?

By:bfra on 7/20/12 at 8:53

One more question - Why will the senile, half brained nitwit use just a dab of common sense? I don't have to add a name, everyone will know who this is for.

He certainly has all of the makings of "toast". You have a very successful human being with a beautiful wife and family going head to head with 47% of the voting population paying no federal income tax. It does not take too many other votes to turn this election into a victory for Barack Hussein Obama or Joran Van der Sloot if he were running as a democrat in favor of "free stuff"

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 9:22

dargent7,

You raise the question as why Obama is questioned but the presidents before him weren't. Because everyone who became President of this name was well known when they threw their hat in the ring. None of them hesitated in offering any identity when questioned.

Barack Hussein Obama just appeared out of nowhere and refused to identify himself from the very beginning and no one favoring him on this site knows who in the hell he actually is.

Politics is politics. You can bet your a$$ many people are researching his past.

I'm not trying to make a sale for him, but read his (supposedly) autobiography, "Dreams from My Father". Then look into his history since the publishing of that book.

If you, and your fellow posters on this site are ready to live in a communist nation, hang in there, Barry has you just around the corner from it.

By:global_citizen on 7/20/12 at 9:27

"Correct me if I'm wrong, Mike, but I believe Mitt Romney has released as many years tax returns as required by law which I believe is two years, and he isn't even the nominee yet."

Yogi, your posts are always good for an eye-rolling laugh if nothing else.

You managed to get two facts wrong in one sentence. For one, there is no law requiring a candidate for president release his or her tax returns. It's just customary. Secondly, Romney has released only one year's return, not two years.

You're welcome.

By:bfra on 7/20/12 at 9:27

Yogi you are the closest thing to a communist on this board. Always posting lies about the President of the United States & they are definitely lies, as you have NEVER offered any proof of anything you post.

By:dargent7 on 7/20/12 at 9:47

Yogi seems to know more about Barack Obama than Barack Obama.
All this "studied in Indonesia"..."renouced his US citizenship"...born in Kenya,...Honolulu only had 2 hospitals in 1961.
How does he know all this? From Birther web sites, started by a Jewish Russian immigrant.
Who do want to believe? A Russian jew or the CIA, FBI, and Harvard University.
He's right..Obama came out of nowhere. Just 2 years in the IL Senate. He's that smart and thought, "I could do this".
McCain was 72 years old, looked like shit, and Palin couln't answer what she reads on the john. (Toilet, not John McCain).
He keeps on with the, "who is this person" ?
I'm quite sure Occidental College, Columbia, and Harvard know who he is and it isn't any of your goddamn business. Birth Certificates, college transcripts, GPA's, SAT scores aren't included in The Freedom of Information act.
Today's topic was Romney's tax returns.

Since you and your fellow posters can change the subject on this site at your wish, by damn, I'm going to change it at my wish,too.

It's called equal rights you know., or don't you? I have seen subjects offered by NCP and not one sentence was written on the suggested subject and many pages were passed back and forth by you fellow posterboys.

Sorry, I didn't know y'all are something special on this site which gives you special consideration.

And I'll agree, I apparently do know more about Barack Obama than you and your fellow posters on this site. You're going to find out sooner than you'll like.

By:Mike Burch on 7/20/12 at 10:14

As for Romney's "blind trust," it is run by his personal lawyer, and the "blind trust" invested millions of dollars in a company owned by his son and one of his campaign's financial advisers. Romney himself once said that blind trusts are shams. His wife Ann recently said on TV with Robin Roberts that "you people" have no right to question the Romney's finances and the way they live.

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 10:25

BenDover,

If anyone wants to shut me up, all they have to do is prove Barack Obama is in that office legally. But they can't, because he ain't. If he was, he would have saved himself millions of dollars by simply showing his papers.

He argued for over two years he could not show his birth certificate because the Hawaiian government would not allow him to have a copy of it. Yet the week before Jerome Corsi's book on him was to be released from the publisher... low and behold, he presented his "birth certificate". When did the Hawaiian government change their technicalities?

And when did African become a race? If his father was born in 1936, his race was Negro

And can you explain why he is using a Social Security number that were issued decades ago to a man in Connecticut who just happened to die in Hawaii?

By:yogiman on 7/20/12 at 10:37

Well, Mike,

I think it's strange you can question Mitt Romney with all the personal questions you can come up with, but you can't question Barack Obama with one question. You know, like" Who in the hell are you? Where was you born? Or perhaps; Why are you spending so much money to keep all of your papers secret? How much special costs has he shown for special attorney fees?

There's more. Can you say why he won't answer them? Could it be because it's none of our damn business, but it can be his concern to keep his papers secret and ask questions about Mitt Romney.